Brennan Feels Kilkenny Failure To Stop Tipperary Star Summed Up Semi-Final Issues

While much of the post-match focused has been on the issue with the scoreboard late on in Croke Park, there is no doubt that Kilkenny will have regrets over the way they found themselves in that situation during the loss to Tipperary.

The Leinster champions played some excellent hurling at times during the All-Ireland semi-final, although they rarely threatened to raise a green flag during the contest. In contrast, their opponents would score four goals during the game.

In the end, that proved to be the difference between the sides.

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While the goals were the winning of this game for Tipperary, they were not the only area where they outperformed their opponents.

Puck-outs were another one, with Kilkenny struggling to establish any sort of rhythm from their restarts over the course of the match. In contrast, Tipp found it much easier to pick out their own players.

Writing in the Irish Independent, Eddie Brennan raised the dominance of one man as a prime example of the way Tipperary prospered in this area.

[Kilkenny] needed to ensure certain players weren’t available off Tipp’s short puck-outs but Mikey Breen, a key distributor, was the go-to man, always available.

Meanwhile, Eoin Murphy’s puck-outs weren’t fired off fast enough when he had runners in space and Richie Reid’s distribution, for an experienced player, was poor – lumping the ball long from deep in defence.

They went short when they had numerical advantage, bringing it out so far and then pucking it up, 50/50, which let Tipp off the hook. They didn’t get high enough with the platform, delivering the ball from their own ’45 when it needed to be a bit higher.

Mikey Breen certainly had a massive say in the game, with Kilkenny unable to disrupt his influence on Tipperary puck-outs.

After another disappointing All-Ireland semi-final defeat, Derek Lyng's side will have a long winter to reflect on their shortcomings in this contest.